WE SHUT DOWN THE WTO!!!

[Neil Tangri <ntangri@essential.org>]

Greetings from the Battle in Seattle!

Yesterday I had the honor to participate in one of the most amazing protests I've ever been a part of. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Seattle to shut down the WTO ministerial meetings in Seattle. It was the most amazing range of progressive groups I have ever seen -- from Steelworkers to Lesbian Avengers to the Falun Gong to local environmental justice groups to the animal rights crowd...an incredible spectrum of people who would normally never agree on anything. But they all agree that the WTO is a threat to democracy in the US and around the world. 

As you probably heard, we were incredibly, surprisingly successful. This massive, peaceful protest occupied the streets of downtown Seattle and physically blocked the WTO delegates from entering the convention center. The US delegation, including Charlene Barshefsky, Madeleine Albright and officials of the US Commerce Department were not able to leave their hotels. Third world delegates wandered the streets, unharmed and unharrassed, but unable to convene. The opening sessions were cancelled, and only 250 of the expected 3000 participants ever managed to make it inside. 

The protestors accomplished this by putting their bodies on the line. Thousands and thousands of people formed a human chain around the convention center, linked arms, blocked traffic and physically but nonviolently shut down the city center. It was an amazing demonstration of the power of the people to derail the corporate agenda; and of the determination of ordinary people to defend their rights.

In solidarity,

Neil Tangri